1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technology for recording and managing image data.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Recently, digital cameras and image scanners have become popular as peripheral apparatuses for personal computers. This has enabled users to easily input image data to personal computers. Image data that have been input can be edited or displayed on the personal computer. Input image data can also be output to a printer or the like thereby to be printed.
Input image data is usually stored on a recording medium such as hard disk of the personal computer. Image data is generally large in file size compared to other types of data and, as a result, causes a burden on the storing capacity of the recording medium of the personal computer. Thus, it is necessary for the user to frequently check the available storing capacity of the recording medium such as the hard disk and, when the available storing capacity is insufficient, delete unnecessary data. As more users are expected to handle image data more frequently, it imposes increasing burden on the user to check the available storing capacity of the hard disk and delete unnecessary data.
An object of the present invention is, in order to solve the problem described above, to provide an image data management device, an image recording device, an image data managing method and a recording medium that reduce the burden of the user in managing image data.
The object described above is achieved by such a configuration as described below.
The image data management device, according to the present invention, comprises a receiver for receiving image data and information indicating a use period of the image data, a recorder for recording the image data and the information indicating the use period received by the receiver on a recording medium, a manager that monitors the use period of the image data recorded on the recording medium, and a processor that deletes image data which has expired the use period from the recording medium.
The image data management device, according to the present invention, comprises a setter for settling a use period of image data, a recorder for recording information indicating the use period set by the setter, along with the image data on a recording medium, a manager that monitors the use period of the image data recorded on the recording medium, and a processor that deletes image data which has expired the use period from the recording medium.
When the recording medium is a fixed recording medium, the image data management device carries out data managing operations on the image data recorded on the fixed recording medium. When the recording medium is a removable recording medium, on the other hand, data managing operations are not carried out on the image data recorded on the removable recording medium.
The image recording device, according to the present invention, comprises a setter for setting a use period for image data which have been captured and a recorder that records information indicating the use period set by the setter along with the image data on a recording medium.
According to the image data managing method of the present invention, the image data is recorded along with information indicating a use period on a recording medium, checks the use period of the image data recorded on the recording medium, and deletes image data that has expired the use period from the recording medium.